brent: richard walker in washington. we will talk with you on the day and about half an hour from now, thank you very much. we are going to stay with politics and moved to south africa. polling stations have closed in local elections that could see the biggest political shakeup since the end of apartheid two decades ago. the reasons, a struggling economy and a series of corruption scandals involving president jacob zuma. voters are turning to opposition parties and the ruling african national congress could lose control of major cities. reporter: voters braved the winter weather and long lines to cast their ballot in the hotly

contested local elections. those who remember the days when black south africans were not allowed to vote saw it as their duty to take part. >> it is a dream to know that one man can vote in south africa. it is fantastic, and i hope everybody want to use their vote in the right way. reporter: the anc, the party of nelson mandela, has been dominant since apartheid 22 years ago. but with a fragile economy and numerous scandals rocking the current leader, there are more concerns in the lead up to the election voters are growing disillusioned, especially in natural collagen centers. >> it is about whether the anc is going to remain a party which is strong in both the cities in the countryside, or whether it

is going to be a party which is mainly race in the country areas and might have to concede the cities of the opposition parties. reporter: polls suggested support for the main alliance can increased in urban areas. the da's leaders so confident of their chances. >> this election has been special for us. it will be historic the people of south africa. i think we are feeling the winds of change all across the country. even today, casting their vote, it is a powerful ballot that we can choose our government. we are feeling confident going into this last day. reporter: the unfulfilled promises may be dimming the anc's appeal, but this could be a referendum on jacob's presidency. he survived an impeachment vote in april after the highest court added he had acted illegally after refusing to repay state

funds used to renovate his home. the next big tex for his leadership will not be until the national elections in 2019. brent: operations are getting back to normal at one of the busiest airports after a spectacular crash and rescue. an emirates boeing 777 crash-landed at a dubai airport and burst into flames. all 300 passengers and crew were able to escape safely apart from minor injuries. not a single agile two. but one firefighter died tackling the blaze. as more. reporter: thick black smoke from the boeing 777 after the crash landing. the aircraft burst into flames. amateur footage shows the explosion. the pilots warned passengers ahead of time. still, they were lucky to escape the burning craft. >> i think of

something bad. the smoke was coming inside. they ask us to evacuate. we escape from the emergency exit. then after two minutes, around 20 minutes, the front portion burned. reporter: investigators are looking into the cause of the emergency landing. there might have been a problem with landing gear as the aircraft appeared to touchdown on its belly. this was the most serious for emirates, ranked among the safest airlines. dubaairport, o of the siest trsport hubs, suspended all arrivals and landings for several hours. operations are slowly returning to normal. emirates canceled and diverted numerous flights and announced long delays across its network. brent: the un security council

is holding an emergency meeting after the latest north korean missile test. the united states says north korea fired two missiles at the same time, and one exploded as soon as it was launched. japan says this other launched near its territorial waters after flying 1000 kilometers. now to some unfinished business from the cold war. a german court has sent to former yugoslav secret service chiefs to jail for life for masterminding the murder of a dissident back in the 1980's. they are both from what is now croatia, found guilty of complicity in the murder, committed in a pretty little town in southern germany. reporter: in bavaria, southwest of munich. this is where one of the men fled after escaping yugoslavia.

he was an outspoken critic of the communist regime. he also had inside information about corrupt dealings at the top of the country's business and politics. in july 1983, he went into his garage. a secret printing press. he was shot multiple times before being killed with an ax. his son found him afterwards. within a few years, his son would also be dead. the circumstances of his death are still not clear. >> there is a serious rash. i am service -- certain the secret service wants to fight me and hinder my political freedom. yugoslavia secret service had a network of spies all over germany, keeping tabs on exiled yugoslavs. it was a time that the dozens of murders. >> yugoslavia seems to be

preferring letting internal issues play out abroad more often than not on german soil. this man -- reporter: this man was the officer responsible for running the informants in germany. he was among -- those victim was among his targets. there was an arrest or it out for him, but he continued to live in croatia, unperturbed. this is the man who stood accused of ordering the murder, former spy chief. for years, he was a key figure driving the crackdown on dissidents. he had little to fear from croatian authorities. their arrests came after sustained pressure from the eu. they were extradited to germany in 2014. a court in munich has found them guilty of masterminding the murder, seth -- sentencing to

life in prison. they intend to appeal the verdict. brent: this is dw news. still to come, the old harry potter magic, fans can scarcely contain themselves as the latest tale of magical mayhem hits the bookshop. we will tell you what is in store with that. ♪

brent: welcome back. you are with dw news live from berlin. donald trump has fallen out with republican party bigwigs. he climbed to endorse -- declined to endorse him because -- them because they were slow to endorse him. this party campaign is imploding. ahead of decision day for the bank of england, things not looking good for their economy.

daniel is here now with that story. daniel: you could call it the brexit blues. this is a foregone conclusion, a rate cut. that is conclusions from the rate for market. the u.k. economy is shanking at the fastest rate since the financial crisis. what is not clear is if this is just a knee-jerk reaction to the brexit vote or worse, the beginning of another recession. reporter: it is a big job, the bank of england must keep this post brexit referendum decision at bay. policymakers want to know how it will do that. there are a few options. >> put more money in the economy, find a mechanism for better assets on purchases and suchlike to make sure there is more movement. reporter: observers are not sure which way the bank will go. it is expected the bank of england will slash key lending rates in the first time since

the financial crisis to a record low of zero point 75%. others expected to have quantitative easing. at a time when not everyone agrees massive bond buying program said been effective elsewhere, the england -- bank of england may shy away from this. doing nothing is not an option. economic headwinds like business and exciting pound art dangerous. they have to reassure consumers that they are apt to keep the economy afloat. brent: it seems like in america, there is reason to be optimistic. the crossover to an update from wall street. hello. reporter: it was trading slightly higher wednesday after

the shock rebounding. after we learned the private sector added around 117,000 jobs in july, better than expect, and the number they keep showing the u.s. economy is heading towards full employment. it is important to remember both the values and readings for manufacturers and services have shown a decrease in the labor indicators, which mean we the downward pressure on the payrolls number to be released on friday. for now, we keep expecting around 170 or 180,000 jobs creating in july. daniel: i would like to move on to airlines. over here in europe, lufthansa is facing turbulence. what about the u.s. carriers? are they lying high? -- flying high? reporter: not much higher than that european counterparts. since last march, the biggest

airlines which included american, united, delta and continental have shared about $30 billion in market cap, 25% of their volume. aside from the challenges, outside forces like fears of terrorist attack or zika virus infection, are taking a toll on americans and increase fears to travel. delta which disclosed its transit performance, showed a drop in passenger revenue. oil prices late an advantage for airline ticket sales. -- play an advantage. daniel: thank you for that update. panama is offended about its status as a tax haven. it wants to impose penalties on anyone that labels it as one. a draft bill would see tax trade or migration restrictions for, these -- for companies that view it as this.

this could be aimed at france. he would put the -- it put the latin american country back on the blacklist for tax havens after the wealthy stashed their funds there. they will fight money laundering and tax evasion but will fail to comply with international standards. amid all this economic turmoil, you might be forgiven for in jolting in escapism. there is another harry potter book out. "harry potter and the closed -- cursed child" just hit west end. it has already cast a spell on thousands of the wizards fans. >> the book was released last sunday, but he has worked his magic. 680,000 copies have flown off the shelves, retailing at $15 to $20. it is only bringing in a tiny profit as diehard fans rush to get their hands on a copy.

>> like come down and read it and then i can go crazy and go full harry potter. reporter: this is harry potter with one distance -- difference, it is a play not a novel. the show itself is on west and, a further expansion of the hugely successful franchise. >> my children always wanted to read another harry potter book. now i will go back to the hotel and read it. reporter: he won't be the only one. barnes and noble was the most pre-ordered book since, you guessed it, the last harry potter. daniel: from the cursed child to first construction, berlin's new airport is becoming a byword for mass incompetence and shirking of responsibility for those responsible. six years late and still no sign of opening. costs overwhelming in the billions of euros.

construction had been halted due to lack of funding, but now the eu has given the green light for a one billion euro public credit and a guarantee for the same amount. we will upgrade the fire and smoke safety systems and new airport facilities. it is already too small for the traffic you will have to take assuming it does open. the earliest it is expected to open is in 2017. that is what they are saying now. the business desk, we go away. brent is looking at jobs in wildlife protection. brent: trying to run an airport. thank you very much. park rangers come along we have started on the toughest removal jobs ever, transporting hundreds of elephants from one wildlife reserve to another where they stand a better chance of survival. but how do you get us time elephant to pack his trunk and

leave home? >> this time it is not poachers flying up to hand elephants. they do have weapons, but no bullet, just anesthetic. even this is stressful for the large animals. to minimize this, rangers trade to capture an entire family. -- trying to capture an entire family. >> they will push them out of the woodland and attack them. reporter: the rangers need to be quick. should an elephant fall, it could suffocate. veterinarians make sure the animals can breathe properly. it is not the largest relocation projects ever undertaken. 500 elephants removed from malawi's national park to a different reserve, one that is safer and with fewer animals. >> it is unusual, it is stressful, they don't know or they are going. so there is a significant stress

to them. but if you are moving them as a herd, where there is food and water and research has been done on the final destination, those stresses are worth it. reporter: elephants can weigh up to six tons. only one has died during transportation. the elephants chase challenge -- face challenges. different plants grow at the destination, and they have to change their diet. but there is no future for too many elephants here. the elephants are not able to find enough to eat. they are freaking out of reserves looking for you and have killed people and the -- breaking out of the reserves and looking for food and have killed people in the process. >> we are setting out to prove we can catch big groups of elephant and move them t available habitats. where there is protection. reporter: after the journey, the

elephants arrive in their new home in northern malawi. it is here that they will longer be a danger to one another. brent: controversy continues in the buildup to the rio olympics. russia's entire weightlifting team and southern team rowers remain banned after their appeal for rejecting. and the arrival of the torch has not been universally welcomed with antigovernment protests hitting the relay. a heavy security presence is expected around the torch of ahead of friday's opening ceremony. it is not clear who will might the cauldron in the americana stadium. the ball legend palais -- football legend pele is the favorite. ceremonies, but but competitive action is already underway.

soccer is usually before the games themselves. in the first match, sweden's women had beaten south africa 1-0 in a near empty olympic stadium. this is a reminder of the top stories we are following. donald trump has fallen out with the republican party. he declines to endorse some of the top politicians because they were slow to endorse him. the party is concerned the presidential campaign is imploding before its very eyes. after a short break, i will be back to take you through the day. stay with us for that. [captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy. visit ncicap.org]

>> live from paris, "france 24". our top stories this hour. republican party widen with presidential nominee donald trump refusing to back of his own party. they'rerepublicans say voting for hillary clinton. thousandsears tens of of civilians trapped in aleppo as fierce fighting rages on. syrian forces and russian allies are seeking to push back rebels as they shell government-controlled areas. setsouth african politics for the biggest shakeup since the end of apartheid. with cor